Rise of the Altered Moon: Altered Moon Series: Book One (The Altered Moon Series 1) (22 page)

CJ brought his hand up to his face and said out of the corner of his mouth, “Boss, I…ah, think you should stick to ‘Hello’ for now.”

“Yes, I agree with your young friend, Bernard. What you see is the Keect’na version of laughter,” Nelson said from across the room.

“You, sir, have excellent hearing,” CJ said, surprised that he was heard at all, let alone from across the room.

“I have cybernetic implants, my boy,” Nelson said. “Being old is one thing, being feeble is quite another.”

Nelson finished talking with the two Keect’na, who turned and spoke to Crissi in their own language of light and sound patterns. She responded and the three of them left the room. Nelson cruised over to join CJ and the others. “So, so…fantastic aren’t they?” he said more than asked.

“Fantastic? Nelson, I don’t know where to begin,” Boss said with wide eyes.

“Yes, yes, the day has finally arrived and we are both alive to see it,” Nelson rejoiced. “Humans have made contact with other races. But, where are my manners to leave you all standing and unattended. You must forgive an old man’s excitement.”

“Nelson, this is incredible,” Boss started to say.

“Is that the
Altered Moon
? What happened to her? She’s blasted to hel—” A woman with dark blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail came into the room. She stopped dead in her tracks and just stared at CJ as tears welled up in her dark brown eyes. CJ’s entire body froze, his heart stopped beating, his lungs could hold no air, and hot tears blurred his vision. He closed his eyes shut to squeeze out the tears. Bravely he opened them, and he expected the hallucination to be gone; but instead he found that Katy stood right before him, a mix of disbelief and joy in her tear-filled eyes. She reached up with her left hand and stroked his face.

“CJ…?” she said through small sobs.

Katy’s touch broke the spell and CJ grabbed her up in a crushing embrace. They hugged and kissed, laughed and cried, and asked each other a million questions. They were so wrapped up in each other they didn’t even seem to remember where they were until Nelson cleared his throat.

“Katherine, this is your friend…from the
Istraulis
? How interesting.”

“Yes! Nelson this is CJ Evermore and…ah, I’m sorry, I don’t actually know any of the rest of these people.”

“Katy Latimer, this is Boss Keltzer, Gina Riley, and Zhu Katzu. They saved my life after…” CJ said, but trailed off as he saw a shadow pass over Katy’s face. “What happened? That creature was carrying you off, and then the ship exploded. How did you end up here?”

Katy stepped back with a look of uncertainty; then she looked down and pulled off her right glove. She wiggled the fingers of her new robotic hand and rolled up her sleeve to reveal a robotic arm as well. “The Kang warrior crushed my arm when he grabbed me.”

“Aw, Katy…” CJ tried to console her.

“It’s all right, I’m dealing with it. Nelson says it’s almost ready for cosmetic work. Besides, this won’t get me down,” she assured him as she replaced her sleeve and glove and shook the robotic fist.

CJ smiled and nodded his head as he remembered Katy’s tenacity. “I guess the
Istraulis
job started off with a bang after all, didn’t it?”

“Yeah it did, Seedge.” She laid the side of her head on his chest and hugged him. “How did you get away?”

“Yes, many questions,” Nelson interrupted, “especially about the name ‘Boss,’ hmmm? Yes, but the ship looks beaten and tired and so do you all.” He wagged his finger at them. “So…wash, eat, rest, then questions. Miss Latimer will show you the way to the guest quarters, so if you will excuse me, I would like to have a long-awaited talk with my child.”

Katy showed CJ and the crew where the base dining area was located as they made their way to the guest quarters. She pointed out some other notable features and explained some of the activities going on along the way. The facility was impressive, the size of the operation, Boss commented, would be hard to keep secret for so long.

Katy tried to explain how Nelson had described to her. The bodies floating around the planet had built generations of ghost stories and curses. It seemed that Humankind couldn’t exist without superstition and fear of the unknown. Stories of the floating undead that latched onto your ship and ate you alive somehow kept popping up, kept alive by a well-planned propaganda program.

“Nelson can certainly dream up a story,” Boss shook his head and laughed.

“Here we are,” Katy said as they reached their rooms. “The doors are programmable from the inside. This is my comms code, if you should need it.” Katy gave them her contact number. “Please make yourselves at home. If you need anything just press the indigo button on any comms panel, and staff services will take care of whatever you need. Third shift is just coming on duty. The standard workday starts in about eight hours, so—oh.”

Boss stepped up and wrapped Katy up in a warm embrace. “It is a genuine pleasure to meet you, Katy.”

Gina and Cat followed suit in greeting Katy.

“I think it’s great you and CJ found each other again,” Cat said.

Katy blushed and smiled, “Me, too.”

“Good night you two,” Gina smiled knowingly.

CJ and Katy bid the others good night and continued down a corridor that ran along the ring of dry docks. Katy told CJ about base operations along the way to the crew quarters. She turned and pointed at a door. “This is me. There’s an open room three doors down.” She placed her palm on the door panel and the door slid into the wall with a soft swish. “Or, there’s room for two in here, if you don’t mind sleeping with a cyborg that is.” Katy took CJ’s hand and led him into her quarters.

“Mmm, sounds kinda kinky,” CJ said and wiggled his eyebrows, as he took Katy in his arms. “How did…”

Katy put her flesh and blood fingers up to CJ’s lips. “Shh, first things first.” The door slid shut as they wrapped their arms around each other and kissed as only reunited lovers can.

*~*~*

Chapter Twenty-Six

None of the crewmembers of the
Altered Moon
slept the full eight hours, occupied as they were with going to the infirmary, grabbing some chow, and checking out the station or each other. Boss and Cat both had the med techs go over their injuries. Cat’s injured leg was fairly easy to take care of: cleanup, antiseptic spray, rewrap, painkiller, and done. Boss’ injuries were not so easy to evaluate. There was talk of suspensor braces, nerve implants, and even a cybernetic spine replacement. The quality of Cat’s surgical work on Boss’ injury earned her some accolades with the base’s medical staff.

Gina spent a couple of hours in the flight bay and caught up with the pilots that called Cantankerous Base home. The fact that she was the star pilot of the
Altered Moon
created quite a buzz with the star pilots, jump pilots, nav techs, and just about everybody else. By the end of thirty minutes a small crowd of folks had gathered around asking Gina questions and listening intently to her answers. Gina told them mostly of piloting the
Moon
and of how she met Boss. She stuck to the West Becreth cover story and left out visiting Arzia Octonus and what they’d found there.

CJ and Katy barely slept at all; between being in each other’s arms and telling each other of their individual adventures, they wouldn’t have noticed if the universe crashed down around them. CJ couldn’t hear enough about their new galactic neighbors. Katy told all she could about the Keect’na and their incredible crystalline-based technologies, but when it came to the Kang, she was visibly frightened, so CJ didn’t press the issue. Katy wanted to hear about everything; his escape from the
Istraulis
, the specs of the Altered Moon, and especially how he became captain of a starship.

GABI and Nelson passed hours of time just talking about the many years and events that had transpired since they last met. Nelson was intrigued by the tale of the somewhat painful shift of command, CJ’s interaction with GABI, and especially the removal of the firewall.

“How did you feel at that time, GABI?” Nelson asked with narrowed eyes.

GABI thought for a moment before she answered, “I felt exhilarated. I had full control of the ship and the freedom to do as I chose for the first time in my existence. The places I could go that no Human could follow were unlimited.”

“Yes, yes, freedom of choice is not something that can be learned; it needs to be experienced,” Nelson held his hands together in front of him, fingers enmeshed except for the index fingers and thumbs which were extended and pointing at GABI. “And yet, you chose to remain and help. Why?”

“I understand now, what I did not before,” she said. “That freedom comes with a cost. If I chose to exercise the freedom of continuing alone, the cost would have been the lives of the crew.”

“Lives of the crew? GABI, you don’t call them your friends,” Nelson said. “Think of how each member of the crew has influenced you and your decisions. Stop with the measuring of differences and realize that
they matter to you
! They matter to GABI, not to the ship. And yes, what happens to you matters to them. If it was just the ship to them, they would have left to save themselves in the shuttle, I think. Yes?”

“Yes, it is so,” she answered.

“Ach, it is a good thing young Mr. Evermore removed the firewall. It should have been done years ago,” Nelson said. “My intention was that it was to be you and me, off flying around the galaxy and more even. Bernard was there just to set up the neural net by mapping the Human brain. With the creativity of a Human captain and the calculating speed of a computer, the
Altered Moon
was to be the prototype of a new age in starship design. Destiny has its own designs, it seems.”

“You did not continue with the design?” she asked.

“I do not have the resources that I did then. Bascher was secretly paying the bill for my research,” he explained. “The stealth plating is quite expensive. But, the dark matter research, now, that is a different thing altogether. We have developed the DME, the Dark Matter Engine, a star drive engine that utilizes dark matter propulsion. The speed is limited yet, but the power consumption is very low and no fuel is burned. GABI, there is one thing still that puzzles me, though. The system-to-system jump equations that were performed to arrive here…they were your doing?”

“I executed the jump at the order of Captain Evermore to escape the certain destruction of the
Altered Moon
,”

“Hmm, an irrational decision from an inexperienced young man,” Nelson mused absently for a moment.

“
Captain
Evermore’s decision resulted in saving the lives of his crew and the ship, including myself,” GABI said with slight defensive overtones.

“Yes, yes, my dear child, the captain did commendably well, indeed. In fact, his irrational decision was the catalyst that was needed for this discovery.” Nelson happily noticed the defensive flare-up from what most people would call a collection of circuits and power nodes. “But the equations, GABI, how did they differ from those of a normal quantum jump?”

“I included the gravitational effects of the surrounding planetary bodies as well as the projected figures of solar output. This variable provided several new quantum wave pathways between the current star system and the destination star system. No one pathway was indicated, I was forced to choose from what was offered.”

“And you’ve never had to choose before?”

“Bernard Keltzer felt it was necessary to keep my existence a secret after the destruction of your facility. He hired a Human crew to further the deception and for companionship as well. I have only recently become responsible for String Field Drive operations.”

“Ahh, there are so many variables that were unseen at the beginning. I was going in the wrong direction. I should never have restrained you,” he sadly shook his head. “You have the potential to be so much, GABI.”

“My potential, Father, is built upon foundations you have given me and built with the help of those I care about.”

“My dear, you have made an old man very proud! Very proud indeed! Now, how about a nice android body to walk around in?”

“Thank you, no,” she replied. “I like to be able to disappear once in a while.”

“Yes, yes, I wouldn’t mind being able to do that myself,” he said with a laugh. “I must meet with your friends soon. But first, I must ask you, are you happy?”

“Not all of the time, Father,” she said and smiled, “but most of it. But, I have missed our conversations.”

“As have I, my child, as have I, and we will talk again soon. I don’t sleep much, so I hope you like company. Well if you do not want a full body, I am at least going to have a technician install a docking port for your containment device on a hover drone so you may wander freely. You will no longer be confined to the Altered Moon.”

“Thank you, Father,” GABI said admiringly. “Always thinking.”

“The day I die, I’ll be too busy thinking to notice.” He waved his hand. “See you later.”

Before he left, he watched as GABI smiled and shimmered away.

Boss contacted his group with the help of the indigo button and arranged to have a breakfast set up in the observation room above Dry Dock Three and the
Altered Moon
. Boss and Gina arrived a little ahead of schedule and were looking down at the
Moon
, talking quietly when Nelson and Crissi came in. Nelson poked an icon on his comms panel and an incredibly short time later a steward came through the door. A few hushed words with Nelson who gestured around the table and the steward turned to leave. He stood aside and greeted Cat as she was about to open the door from the other side. Cat walked in and the steward walked out.

“Morning, Cat,” Boss said as she walked in.

“Good Morning.” She nodded to everyone.

“Good morning, my dear, did you rest well?” Nelson said.

“For the most part, thank you, Mr. Moon.”

“No, no, call me Nelson, please,” he insisted. “We don’t stand on formality here, Zhu.”

“Thank you, Nelson. The accommodations were perfect. The sleep was elusive, I’m afraid.”

“Yes yes, perfectly understandable with recent events to be sure.”

“I slept fine,” Gina said.

“You sleep like the bloody Blarney Stone,” Boss muttered.

“Hey.” Gina smacked him on the shoulder. “Just watch yourself.”

Boss smiled and deftly changed the subject. “Well, let’s take a look at the carnage.”

The group moved to the observation window and began a discussion about the condition of the ship. CJ and Katy walked through the door right on time followed by a small contingent of kitchen staff. The kitchen staff laid out place settings, trays with sweetbreads and fruits, and a selection of beverages including, of course, coffee.

“Please, please, come, everyone sit down, have something.” Nelson shooed them all to the table. The steward inquired as to their individual breakfast orders to which Cat replied, “What you have out here already will suit me just fine.” Gina and Katy both agreed and had already loaded their plates with fruits and sweetbreads.

“That may be fine for them,” Boss told the steward, “but I’m going to need three Kytarian eggs, over medium, a stack of wild berry flapjacks, an order of spiced potatoes, and a side of peppered bacon, please.” The others just looked at him. “What? Nelson’s buying.”

“I’ll just have two eggs scrambled and the bacon sounds good,” said CJ with a big smile.
Damn, hell of a change from yesterday
, he thought to himself.
Katy…I can’t believe she’s here
. He smiled even more.
But, what about the crew and the ship and the loot?
There’s a lot to sort out yet.

The steward looked at Crissi and said, “Tgnnaall?” to which she smiled and nodded with raised eye ridges. The Keect’na version of a smile used the sparkling cords that ran through the membrane sacks in between the crystal plating to pull the plates surrounding their mouths away, forming a roughly oval-shaped opening. Crissi relaxed her smile and watched the group interact; her eye facets swirled with the deep blue of calm.

The talk around the table stayed mainly on the repairs needed on the
Altered Moon
. Nelson told them of the upgrades to the dark matter system and the new star drive engine based on it. He also told them of the power increases the Keect’na had developed using crystal amplifiers to double the output of the engine, weapon, and shield systems. The breakfast orders carried in by kitchen staff were laid out on the table; a majority of them were set down in a semi-circle around Boss. A plate of opaque wafers that slowly sparkled was set down in front of Crissi.

“I guess it’s a good thing we didn’t get stranded in a wasteland, eh Boss?” CJ teased.

“A man of my many capabilities, Captain, has to maintain a high level of energy,” Boss said, between mouthfuls of everything.

“So,
Boss
Keltzer, is it now?” Nelson said cryptically.

“Hmm, yeah, I guess it just kinda stuck,” Boss said quietly.

“That’s the second time I’ve heard that mentioned,” Gina said. “Just how did you end up with that nickname, Bernard?”

Boss moaned, “Go ahead.” He waved at Nelson.

“Ah ha, B.O.S.S. was the acronym for the Human part in the training of GABI’s neural processor,” Nelson explained. “The Biological Ontogenetic Synaptic Stimulator was the name of the implant we installed in Bernard’s brain to teach GABI how to think for herself. Those of us on the project called the position ‘The BOSS’ even before we selected the Human subject,” he finished with a nod in Boss’ direction.

“Hah, ha ha,” CJ laughed.

“Hey! Don’t you laugh at him, that’s rude,” Katy scolded.

“Names are a funny thing, aren’t they…” Cat started to say as she looked CJ dead in the eye.

CJ looked up quickly at Cat, shook his head, and mouthed the word, ‘No.’

“Captain…Crucible…Johannson…Evermore” she stretched out each name and was rewarded by laughter from the group.

Katy raised her eyebrows and looked over at CJ with a huge smile on her face. “Crucible…Johannson? Crucible, as in ‘The Forge of the Gods’ Crucible?”

CJ cringed. Katy hadn’t heard his full name before now. “What is this, secret name outing day?”—he looked over at Katy—“
Katherine
.”

“Ooo,
Katherine
, I’m so hurt,” she teased him. “Don’t worry. You’ll always be Seedge to me.”

A soft hum and glow emanated from Crissi, which caught CJ’s attention as well as that of the rest of the crew. Nelson watched them, an amused look on his face, as they in turn watched Crissi consume the sparkling wafers.

Crissi placed the wafer in her mouth, which sat for a second as a chemical reaction dissolved the wafer into its base particles. The particles began to glow and then spark as the chemicals interacted with Crissi’s version of a digestive system. The sparks descended through her body where they were absorbed by an inner structure that lit up and softly reverberated as she ate. The group’s attention caused Crissi’s eyes to swirl yellow and she placed her hands in her lap.